Cabinet structure

ABSTRACT

A UNITARY, MOLDED PLASTIC LATCHING DEVICE FOR MAINTAINING STORED POSITION OF A PAIR OF ADJACENT, HINGEDLY MOUNTED SPEAKER ENCLOSURES OF A PORTABLE PHONOGRAPH CABINET. THE ENCLOSURES ARE OPPOSITELY HINGED, AND ARE MOVABLE BNETWEEN A STORED, LATCH POSITION IN WHICH THEY COVER THE CHANGER COMPARTMENT, AND A PLAYING, UNLATCHED POSITION IN WHICH THEY OPEN THE CHANGER COMPARTMENT. THE LATCHING DEVICE IS DISPOSED INTERMEDIATE THE ADJACENT, FREE EDGE PORTIONS OF THE ENCLOSURES AND INCLUIDES A HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING U-SHAPED LATCHING MEMBER.

Feb. 16, 1971 l A. A. COTE 3,563,622

CABINET STRUCTURE Filed Oct. -25, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 E 2' INVENTOR.

b- 16,1971 A. A. COTE 3,563,622

CABINET STRUCTURE Filed Oct. 23, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 AGE/VT United States Patent 3,563,622 CABINET STRUCTURE Alfred A. Cote, Langhorne, Pa., assignor to Philco-Ford Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 23, 1968, Ser. No. 769,827 Int. Cl. A47!) 81/06 U.S. Cl. 312-8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A unitary, molded plastic latching device for maintaining stored position of a pair of adjacent, hingedly mounted speaker enclosures of a portable phonograph cabinet. The enclosures are oppositely hinged, and are movable between a stored, latched position in which they cover the changer compartment, and a playing, unlatched position in which they open the changer compartment. The latching device is disposed intermediate the adjacent, free edge portions of the enclosures and includes a horizontally extending U-shaped latching member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention has to do with cabinet structure, and especially to cabinet structure for housing portable phonographs or the like.

Portable phonographs of one well known type comprise a record player and changer pan assembly arranged to be stored in a vertical position within an upright cabinet, when the phonograph is not in use. The stored pan assembly is covered by a pair of speaker enclosures that are hingedly mounted along vertically extending outer edges thereof so that their free edges are located centrally and adjacent one another. When the phonograph is in use, the speaker enclosures are pivoted outwardly on their hinges, in opposite directions, to positions exposing the pan assembly. With the speaker enclosures thus positioned, the pan assembly is tilted outwardly of the cabinet into a horizontal, record-playing position. It is conventional practice to provide suitable latching means for retaining the speaker enclosures in closed position. Latching means for this purpose has not been entirely satisfactory, particularly due to imprecise positioning of the speaker enclosures by the detachable hinge structure generally used in this art. Such hinge structure permits disassembly of the speaker enclosures from the phonograph and remote positioning of the speakers, as may be desirable when listening to stereo recordings.

It is a general objective of the present invention to provide improved latching means for retaining a pair of hingedly mounted speaker enclosures in their closed position.

It is a further objective of the invention to provide latching means of the aforementioned type that is simple, effective, and easily operated by a user thereof.

It is a further and more specific objective of the invention to provide inexpensive, unitary, preferably molded plastic, latching means of the above-described type that facilitates latching as well as alignment of the speaker enclosures both with one another and with cabinet structure on which they are mounted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Cabinet structure embodying the invention comprises a unitary, molded plastic latching device for maintaining stored position of a pair of adjacent, hingedly mounted speaker enclosures of a portable phonograph cabinet. The speaker enclosures are oppositely hinged, and are movable between a stored, latched position in which they cover the changer compartment, and a playing, unlatched position in which they open the changer compartment. The latching device is disposed in the region of adjacent, free edge portions of the enclosures and includes a horizontally extending, flexible and resilient U-shaped member having open-ended retainer slots for receiving suitably formed projections on free edges of the speaker enclosures. The latching device includes also means cooperable with the enclosure projections to establish and maintain alignment of the speaker enclosures in their closed positions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The manner in which the foregoing general objectives and advantages of the invention may best be achieved will be understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in light of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective showing of portable phonograph apparatus embodying the invention, and with elements thereof, including speaker enclosures, in operating position;

FIG. 2 is an elevational showing of apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and with elements thereof in stored position;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, with parts broken away and illustrating an operational feature of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 on an enlarged scale, and looking generally in the direction of arrows 4-4 applied to the latter figure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With more particular reference to the drawing, and first to FIGS. 1 and 2, a portable phonograph cabinet 10 includes an upwardly extending main box-shaped portion 11 provided with speaker enclosures 12. In accordance with conventional practice, speaker enclosures 12 are hinged along vertical, outer edge portions thereof, as at 13, so that they are pivotable between their open operating position, as illustrated in FIG. 1, and their stored folded position illustrated in FIG. 2. A record changer and player pan assembly 14 is mounted for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis. When the speaker enclosures have been swung away from the cabinet 11 and are in their operating positions, pan assembly 14 is movable between a vertical position within the main cabinet portion 10 (FIG. 2) and a horizontal record playing position (FIG. 1) in which the assembly extends partially to the outside and partially to the inside of the main cabinet portion. A preferred structure for affording selective pivotal positioning of pan assembly 14 is dis closed and claimed in US. Pat. No. 3,352,613 of William J. Morris et al., issued Nov. 14, 1967, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

In particular accordance with the present invention, and as best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, releasable latching of speaker enclosures 12 is provided by a unitary, flexible and resilient molded plastic latching device 15. Plastics found suitable for purposes of the present invention comprise nylon, polypropylene, and the like. As mentioned above, the speaker enclosures 12 are oppositely hinged, by means 13, and are movable between a stored, latched position, in which they cover the pan assembly 14, and a playing, unlatched position in which they afford access to the pan assembly. Latching device 15 is disposed intermediate the adjacent free edge portions of enclosures 12, and comprises a horizontally extending, U-shaped member 16. The loop portion of member 16 includes lugs 21 that provide for screw attachment of the latching device to the top wall of cabinet Each leg portion of member 16 has retainer slots 17 for receiving free edge portions of speaker enclosures comprising flange members 18 extending along upper horizontal edges thereof.

Hinge structure 13 is of the type permitting removal of speaker enclosures 12 from the cabinet 10, for remote positioning of the speakers as may be desirable when listening to stereo recordings. Hinge structure of this general type characteristically is somewhat loose. This characteristic, coupled with a certain amount of flexibility inherent in the cabinet structure, as well as in the speaker enclosures, frequently results in some sagging of the speaker encolsures so that they dont align perfectly with the latches. The latch of the present invention meets and advantageously overcomes this difliculty, ensuring that the enclosures will always return to the same vertically aligned latched position, by inclusion of an upper latch surface portion 22 that cooperates with a laterally projecting bead 19 on flange member 18. This cooperable relationship is perhaps best seen in the left hand portion of FIG. 3.

Considering latching device 15 further and in somewhat more detail, mounting lugs 21 are molded integrally with U-shaped member 16, along the loop portion thereof. Leg portions of member 16 extend unidirectionally and terminate in generally wedge-shaped, forwardly presented portions 23. Laterally outwardly presented retainer slots 17 extend transversely of the leg portions, into the base sections of wedge portions 23. Preferably, the leg portions of latching device 15 are of such cross-section, preferably square, as to facilitate their flexure either in a lateral or a vertical direction. Lateral flexure of the leg portions provides for releasable latching engagement with the speaker enclosures, characterized by camming engagement of flange member 18 with wedge portion 23 (broken lines, FIG. 4), followed by entry of flange member 18 into retainer slot 17 (full lines, FIG. 4). This results in abutting engagement of flange member 18 with sides of slots 17 to establish the closed, latched position of closure 12. At the same time, bead 19 resides in overlapping, abutting engagement with the upper surface portion 22 of wedge portion 23. Vertical flexure accommodates slight vertical misalignment of either one or both of the speaker enclosures, due for example to twisting, or to slight misalignment of the hinge structure as described hereinabove.

Each wedge portion 23 and its slot serves as a combination stop, catch, and actuating cam. Briefly summarizing: as a stop, slot 17 limits the rearward motion of the hinged speaker enclosure relative to the box portion 11; as a catch, the same slot 17 retains the hinged speaker enclosure in its stored position; and as an actuating cam, wedge portion 23 provides means for automatically deflecting the leg portion as the speaker encolsure is moved to its closed position. Manually engageable, vertically extending handle means such as cars 24 provide for lateral deflection of the leg portions, to release the latches when it is desired to pivot the speaker enclosures to their operating positions, either singly, or simultaneously. It will be appreciated further that the same portion of the latch structure that ensures speaker enclosure alignment (i.e.,

4 bead 19 and surface 22) also prevents the speaker en colsures either from becoming unlatched, should the cabinet become distorted or the closures be moved up wardly as may occur during handling.

While cabinet structure utilizing speaker enclosures as doors has been disclosed in combination with the latching device of the present invention, it will be understood also that such device may be used in cabinet structure provided with closures such as the conventional door panels. The invention contemplates these and such other modifications are contemplated by the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In cabinet structure of the type including frame means defining an opening and a pair of hingedly mounted generally rectangular closure panels for said opening,

said panels having free edge portions disposed for closing movements into spaced adjoining relationship to one another and in spaced adjacency to said frame means, and for opening movements away from one another and said frame means, releasable latch means for holding said panels in the recited spaced adjoining relationship, comprising: a base portion supported on said frame means and including a flexible and resilient, U-shaped member having its loop portion supported on said base portion and having its leg portions presented in the direction of spacing of said free edge portions of said panels from said frame means, said U-shaped member further being disposed to extend between said panel edge portions, each said leg portion including a generally cam-shaped surface disposed for camming engagement by the free edge portion of a corresponding panel upon closing movements thereof, such camming engagement being effective to flex a corresponding leg portion toward the other leg portion; and a detent for engaging each cammed free edge portion to establish and maintain the recited spaced relationship of said panel following engagement thereof with the cam shaped surface to flex the corresponding leg portion.

2. Cabinet structure according to claim 1, and further characterized in that each said cam-shaped surface is defined by a wedge-shaped member having one angular face engageable by the free edge portion of said panel, and in that said detent is defined by an open-ended slot extending transversely of said angular face and positioned to receive a free edge portion of said panel.

3. Cabinet structure according to claim 2, and further characterized in that the apex of said wedge-shaped member projects forwardly of said panels when in closed position, and by the inclusion of a manually operable tab for flexing one of said leg portions toward the other leg portion to release the corresponding panel from the latch means.

4. In cabinet structure of the type including frame means defining an opening and means for covering said opening including generally rectangular panel means having a free edge portion and a hinged opposite edge portion whereby said panel means is pivotable between open and closed positions, releasable latch means for holding said panel means in closed position, comprising: a base portion supported on said frame means and including a flexible and resilient cantilevered projection on said base portion extending transversely of said panel means, toward the free edge portion thereof, said cantilevered projection including a generally wedge-shaped member engageable by said free edge portion; and means defining a transversley extending open-ended slot in the base portion of said wedge-shaped member for receiving and retaining said free edge portion of said panel means to establish closed position thereof, in response to camming interengagement between said free-edge portion and said wedgeshaped member.

5. Cabinet structure according to claim 4, and further characterized in that the apex of said wedge-shaped member projects forwardly of said panel when in its closed position, and by the inclusion of a manually operable tab for flexing said cantilevered projection to release the panel from the latch means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Crosno 29217X Evert et a1. 29217UX Bentsen 3128X Morris et a1. 3l28 5 DENNIS L. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

